Download Support Workers: their roles and tasks – a brief

Support Workers: their roles and tasks – a brief
scoping study. (Summary)
About this study
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This was a scoping study reviewing the literature examining the role of
support worker in adult social care.
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The term ‘support worker’ is elastic, but includes people employed or
self-employed to foster independence and provide assistance for service
users in areas of ordinary life such as personal care, communication,
employment and social participation. They may take on secondary tasks
in respect of advocacy and learning.
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The study outlined the current state of research and identified gaps in the
evidence base.
What we found
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Support working in social care is an ill-defined role. This is indicated by
the fact that so many different terms are used to describe people who
may be fulfilling a similar role. Relevant job titles from these categories
include: ‘social work assistant’, ‘community support worker’, ‘home care
support worker’, ‘mental health support worker’, ‘rehabilitation worker’
and ‘personal assistant’ (employees of direct payments recipients).
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Three defining characteristics that generally feature are:
¾ the fostering of independence among people being ‘supported’;
¾ a lack of professional accreditation; and,
¾ engagement in both social care and healthcare tasks.
Role and tasks
• Support workers typically seek to build rapport with service users at the
same time as offering practical assistance in fulfilling the goal of
increased or sustained independence.
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They may also act as a bridge between professionals and service users,
facilitating better communication.
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Support workers may be vulnerable when they are working on their own
and they may feel obliged to work more hours than they have agreed
to—possibly because of a blurred boundary between the roles of
employee and friend.
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Tasks performed depend on the specific type of support commissioned
and the wishes and needs of the person they support.
Role clarity
• Role overlap between support workers and their professional colleagues
is frequently observed.
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Studies of professionals working in nursing homes and occupational
therapy reveal some anxiety (among the professionals) about this, but
the picture elsewhere, for example in intermediate care, is depicted as
not problematic.
•
Some studies suggest that ill-feeling and uncertainty relate to levels of
confidence among team members.
Training
• Evaluations suggest that existing standard National Vocational
Qualifications are inadequate.
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Bespoke training programmes do exist but their availability and quality
varies.
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Access to training is also variable and, in the case of personal assistants,
there is a lack of clarity as to whether training is needed, and, if so, who
should deliver and pay for it.
Career pathways and pay
• There is a mixed picture of career development within support work. For
personal assistants there is often a lack of clarity about what the
particular job entails, often because their role is specifically to undertake
tasks as needed and wanted by the person receiving their support and
not to work to a set care plan.
•
Some of these workers receive low pay and poor or uncertain terms and
conditions.
Worker satisfaction
• The literature generally describes good levels of job satisfaction among
support workers.
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This seems to relate to the rapport-building element of the role, the focus
on well-being, and the degree of leeway in being able to take on tasks
that might otherwise have been done by professionals.
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Service user views
• There are many individual reports of service users’ experiences of
support workers.
•
The extra time such workers are sometimes able to spend with the user
compared to professionals is valued.
•
Amongst direct payments users, the employment relationship may be
formalising a relationship that otherwise was coming under strain.
•
Several authors report anxiety surrounding the quality and quantity of
potential personal assistants.
Gaps in the evidence base
• Studies were predominantly small-scale qualitative projects conducted by
way of interview, questionnaire and/or focus groups. Subject numbers
ranged from as few as eight to 59, although the Skills for Care study of
direct payments users and personal assistants (IFF Research 2008) is an
important exception.
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There are no longitudinal studies examining support workers’ working
patterns, roles and tasks.
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There is a lack of evidence about specific terms and conditions among
workers, and the profile of the workforce.
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The relationship and division of labour between support workers and
professionals could be considered further: for example, how might the
relationship be affected if the support worker role were to become more
formalised and subject to professional registration?
Method
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The study involved a search of UK literature on support working in adult
social care in UK published since 2003.
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Eight bibliographic databases and five websites were searched. Thirtysix relevant UK research studies were retrieved and themes were
identified.
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People with experiences of using services participated in the research in
two ways: discussion at a carers’ and users’ advisory group attached to
SCWRU, and a member of the group volunteered to assist the research
team in debating the subject further.
•
The literature search was conducted November – December 2007. The
review was written up May – June 2008 and further literature added in
October 2008.
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Conclusion
This study identified that support workers are performing an increasingly
important role in the delivery of social care services, but that the evidence
base needed for effective workforce planning and development is lacking.
Job satisfaction and a sense of autonomy are important reasons for working
as a support worker but access to training, and pay and conditions, are
variable. As the personalisation of social care is extended, the use of the
term support worker may increase and the main challenge may be to keep
under scrutiny the employer-employee relationship in order to ensure that
the rights of both parties are respected and outcomes achieved.
Funding
The project was commissioned and funded by the Policy Research
Programme in the Department of Health under the Adult Social Care
Workforce Research Initiative.
Research team
Jill Manthorpe, Stephen Martineau, Martin Stevens, Shereen Hussein, Jo
Moriarty; and John Peardon (user advisory group).
Contact: [email protected]
The website of the Social Care Workforce Research Initiative, of which this
project is part, is hosted by the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s
College London.
URL: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/interdisciplinary/scwru/research/
December 2008
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